Travel receipts, including cruise receipts, were up by 14 million euros (+11,7 percent), to a total of 135 million euros. However, travel payments recorded a larger percentage increase (+32.5 pct), settling at 140 million euros.

The recorded rise is owed to more tourist arrivals (+10,2 pct) and to the increase of the average spending per trip by tourists (+1.3 pct).

For the first two months of 2014, the travel balance recorded an 11-million-euro surplus, compared to a larger surplus of 29 million euros for the same period of 2013.

This is owed to the larger percentage increase of travel payments against travel receipts (+27.3 pct and +17.3 pct, respectively). The travel receipts’ increase is attributed to more tourist arrivals (+10.4 pct) and an increase by 23 euros (+6.3 pct) of the average spending per trip.

Travel receipts from citizens of the EU saw an increase of 2.3 pct, while the increase was ten times larger for non-EU residents (+22.7 pct). Receipts from German tourists saw a 22.2 pct fall during February 2014, while receipts from French tourists fell by 50.7 pct.

During the same month 326 thousand tourists visited Greece, 10.2 pct more than February 2013. A noteworthy increase of 106.2 pct was recorded in the Russian tourists arrivals, while USA tourists arrivals increased by 70.6 pct.